Art

Gallery Project has put together a wonderful multimedia exhibit, titled “What’s So Funny?”, where artists were challenged to submit pieces of artwork that are “humorous”. The substantial exhibit showcases the works of 34 artists, many of whom are local, who answered the call. The art on display expresses humor along the spectrum of dark to joyous, and ranges from immature to intelligent.

You’re likely to stand in front of at least one of the pieces, asking “What’s so funny?”, while your friends walk away laughing hysterically. It’s obvious that not everybody cracks up at the same thing. Humor is a wonderful thing to explore.

Gallery Project, one of the few actual galleries in Ann Arbor, has a beautiful downtown space. Gloria Pritschet, gallery co-founder, says that the gallery is operating in its first year without guaranteed funding, as their primary backer had only promised funding for the first five years. They’re now operating into their sixth year. The gallery hosts nine collaborative, themed exhibits a year, with themes and submission requests offered well in advance.

I attended the opening reception ceremony with Jason Wright, our researcher, and Carrie Ann Knauss, our soon to be guest blogger, was our guide. As the three of us approached the gallery, professional painters were just finishing repainting the trim on the outside of the building in a dark teal color. There were wet paint signs stuck everywhere on the windows, and several passers by remarked that it seemed like a marketing gimmick, referring to freshly painted canvases inside.

Many people attended the "What's So Funny?" exhibit at Gallery Project

We showed up right as the ceremony started, and had a chance to talk to the gallery co-founders and directors, photographer Gloria Pritschet, and painter Rocco DePietro. They were very friendly, answered our questions in abundant detail, were interested in our impressions of the exhibit, and were appreciative of our interest in the arts. As the artists arrived, Pritschet and DePietro were very helpful at introducing us while managing to also successfully greet each guest and hold many in-depth conversations.

As we wandered from front to back, the three of us couldn’t help but start a discussion about what we each found funny and not so funny. The show was obviously doing its job, and if you go, we recommend bringing your friends and discussing the pieces together. You’ll learn a lot about humor and what it means to yourself and others.

The only piece that we could all agree on was an oil painting by Nathan Boyer titled “The World As Will”. Actually, it wasn’t the painting itself, which was quite aesthetically beautiful while evoking a dark feeling of dread, but underneath the painting was a small 13″ cathode ray tube television playing a DVD. The video was of a very animated man, which we can only assume was the artist, dressed as the type of insect like alien you might see on a children’s show. His rambling was absurdly funny and he was greenscreened in front of a larger version of the painting.

"#sculpturefail" by Anthony Fontana

I’m quite a big computer geek, so I was drawn to a piece of installation art by Anthony Fontana titled “#sculpturefail”.

Using the word “fail” after a word has been a frequently used Internet meme evolved from the term “epic fail”, to indicate a situation where an attempt at something has resulted in utter failure. I can imagine the artist trying to come up with the most absurd piece of modern sculpture to fit the name, finally settling on just grabbing a bunch of unsharpened pencils into a bundle, letting go, and thinking, “Art, lolz.”

The piece of art makes a social statement, and a funny one, making light of both the art and Internet cultures.

While I was photographing the scuplturefail, Jason and Carrie Ann had disappeared. I found them in the back of the gallery, in the area where set designer Vince Mountain and audio engineer Frank Pahl, had put together an eclectic combination of kinetic art, light, and sound with performance by actor Malcolm Tulip.

Carrie Ann invited to read by actor Malcolm Tulip

Carrie Ann was engaged in a conversation with Tulip, or at least was being engaged by the amusingly talkative actor. Tulip was dressed in a tuxedo and wore glasses, a fez, and multiple fake handlebar mustaches. While holding a brandy glass, and in a drunken English accent that reminded me of Dudley Moore from “Arthur” but with the posh manners of Mr. Belvedere, Tulip talked the three of us up while showing us around his lovely “Automatic Bachelor Pad”.

Never breaking character, Tulip told us about the wonderful inventions in his bachelor pad, giving us a drunken Englishman’s interpretation of the devices and decorum. He demonstrated the “Self-Emptying Ash Tray” to us with quite a bit of amusement in his voice, which was quite catchy and we all found ourselves laughing at the show.

At one point, Tulip invited our lovely Carrie Ann to sit down and read one of his fine books, which she took him up on. I was able to snap a picture of the two of them, with Tulip reflected in the mirror.

The chap was quite chatty, which can happen when one lives alone, but we managed to evade his small talk and headed back out to the main floor of the gallery.

"Hare Pin" by Todd Frahm

Jason and I stared at the remarkably carved wood sculpture of a rabbit for quite some time, but the joke was over our heads. Unfortunately we didn’t notice the obvious shape of the piece of wood or consider one of the many names given to bunnies.

Just curious to see who had carved the beautiful piece, we looked at the program, at which time we saw the title. “Oh!” we exclaimed, as the punchline hit us. Jason and I found it to be quite a clever joke, and we quickly dragged Carrie Ann over to show her the sculpture, which had been carved by Todd Frahm. We told her about the piece and its title, and waited for the punchline to sink in. I think that Carrie Ann laughed more at our amusement than at the punchline. Another example of how we all find different things funny, and humor strikes us all in different ways.

In the basement was some fun art from Tim Péwé, like the piece titled “Gator Emporium”, and some rather creepy art by the same artist titled “Shasta”, which made me think of what a nightmare would be like if it was drawn by comic artist Mike Judge of “King of the Hill” and “Beavis and Butt-head” fame.

Before we left, we had a chance to talk to Paul Marquardt, a multi-disciplined artist with 35 years of experience, that had driven down from Kalamazoo for the opening ceremony.

"taut taunt" by Paul Marquardt

The mixed media piece is constructed from a digital print on taut canvas and an electric rocker motor, and it highlights a social observation that people will use one word when they should be using the other word. Paul had a few words to say about his motivation behind the piece.

People will often use the word taunt when they meant taut. Very common. Very common mistake, and I have to say in my younger years, I did it a few times too. So it has some resonance with me, and it has resonance when i hear other people do it.

I actually had no idea that these two words were mistakenly interchanged so commonly. I don’t have many conversations where either of these words is used. I do often see people misuse the word “defiantly” to mean “definitely”. The piece has a motion element to it when it’s plugged in, so our photo doesn’t do it justice. You should check out this very smart piece for yourself, at this very fine gallery that deserves your patronage. There are a ton more pieces of fine art at this show, that we didn’t have time to highlight.

Humor is a personal experience. It strikes us each in its own way, which we seem to have little control over. We might be sore about something one day, and be ready to laugh about it the next, and we might be laughing more than our friend who never shared the same experience. Even if we can’t all agree on what’s funny, it’s more fun to disagree with smiles on our faces.

Gallery Project is located at 215 S. Fourth Ave, in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. The “What’s So Funny” exhibit will be showing through November 28, but we recommend that you go out and see it as soon as possible because you don’t want to put it off and take a chance of missing it. The gallery is open every day except Monday. Please give the gallery a call at 734-997-7012 for more information, or visit their Web site.

MWP would like to thank the gallery’s directors for putting together such a wonderful and thought provoking exhibit, and for being so gracious. We’d also like to thank the artists for contributing their time and passion into this collaborative event. Please click on the “I HEART THIS” button to show your love for the great “What’s So Funny?” exhibit.

Bulgarian photographer Lilyana Karadjova has a feature spread in the October 2010 issue of the new online visual arts magazine “Musetouch”. Just this week, Lilyana was the featured artist here at Made With Passion.

In the magazine article, we learn more about Lilyana, as she talks about herself and her art in her 12 page spread.

Making a good portrait is like traveling in one’s soul.

In the magazine article, readers are treated to some more of Lilyana’s recent, creative portrait pieces.

Dawn Heumann is a portrait, documentary, and fine art photographer from the San Francisco and Northern California area. She is currently a graduate student, working towards her Master’s in Fine Arts at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, where her latest passion sometimes puts her at odds with the police.

Many of us have done it. We’re in someone else’s bathroom, and as soon as the door’s shut, we peek in the medicine cabinet. It’s normal curiosity. However, when Dawn’s in your bathroom, stealing a glimpse into that intimate, personal part of your life, you’re not home. You don’t even live there anymore.

Dawn grew up in Sebastopol, California, a small but charming little town, about an hour north of San Francisco. When she was young, Dawn and her two older sisters were frequently whisked away from the quiet town to all parts of the world. Her parents made their living creating travel films, an artistic endeavor that, while having a lasting impression on Dawn, was lost to her in those days.

I spent my young years chasing the morning light from Fiji to Alaska and beyond. I can hear [my father's] harsh voice shushing me to this day as he tried to capture the sweet song of the morning birds. I didn’t know it then, but image making was in me from the start.

When Dawn became older, her parents were reluctant to take the girls away from school for the duration of a film. Instead, the girls stayed at home while their parents traveled. Dawn and her sisters had been taught to think for themselves, and they enjoyed copious amounts of freedom.

As teenagers, we would often spend our evenings occupying abandoned farmhouses and barns. We would steel a few bottles of wine from the back of one of our parent’s cellars or a bottle of peach schnapps from their liquor cabinets, assuming they wouldn’t miss it. A few blankets, a flashlight and someone with a car were all we needed. I had my first kiss on a blanket sprawled in the middle of a dirt road near a local abandoned barn. It seemed as normal of a place as any for such a moment.

Growing up, Dawn felt grounded by her country lifestyle, yet exposure to other cultures created a desire to find her place in the world. In 2003, Dawn studied Philosophy and Religion, with an emphasis in Peace and Justice, at San Fransisco State University.

My pursuit of such studies was born from a determination to grasp the hugeness of the world and the oneness of the cultures I had observed within it as a child. For I felt that if I could understand humanity, culture, religion and the anthropological and social constructs of such ideals, I could also better know myself.

Shortly after Dawn earned her Bachelor’s degree in 2007, she bought her first SLR, a Nikon D40. She left to travel the world again for two years, this time alone. She packed her camera with her.

Dawn first traveled to India, where she observed the Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim religious cultures, all in a single country. After three months in India, she moved on to Europe, Mexico, and Africa. Photos of the Masai and other tribes in Africa, as well as candid shots taken during her long stay in India formed her first art show.

Photography is often thought of as a collaborative art form between the photographer and the world around them. To tell the story on the other side of the lens, you must first peer through it. The photographer, while reflecting the world, also reflects herself.

The lesson was immediate and invaluable, I realized that the creativity and self-expression that came from being behind the camera was a much quicker path to understanding the world and my place within it than philosophy was. The gift of those years was a form of self-expression through creativity, which lent itself not only to my own sense of freedom and expression, but also penetrated the lives of the people I photograph.

Upon her return, she enrolled in the Academy of Art, and since then, Dawn Heumann has been shooting semi-professionally. She enjoys shooting portraits and events, such as weddings.

In contrast, Dawn’s thesis is a series of fine art photographs, titled “abandoned:rural”, which portrays sill life subjects such as abandoned buildings and cars. Still life art depicts inanimate, commonplace objects, often in beautiful arrangements.

Inspired by the memories of the old buildings that she haunted as a child, Dawn sneaks into abandoned homes, barns, and other buildings with her camera.

Sometimes I see a building and I say to myself, “I will get into that building”, and I repeat it every time I pass it, until I try, sometimes once, twice, three times until I am successful.

Once inside, like her father’s documentary fieldwork, Dawn documents the lives that lived within. Once cherished places are now nearly forgotten. The stories are in the details. Dawn is captivated by the nuances, which also bring back fond moments from her past.

These sorts of locations are comforting to me. Many of them are full of intimate memories. The smells of mold and rust that come with such locations are not foreign to me.

One house that Dawn had visited as a teenager left especially vivid memories. She still remembers how the dishes had been laid on the dining room table, as if the owners were in the middle of preparing for dinner, and then suddenly were called away, never to return. She also experienced exhilarating moments there with her friends when neighborhood teenage boys pulled pranks by hiding and scaring the girls.

That house sticks in my mind so vividly to this day I cannot even express it to you. Since the beginning of my series on abandoned buildings I have tried three times now to get into that house. Each time, a neighbor or a policeman catches me; I haven’t made it down that long driveway since that foggy night in high school…. I am still determined to photograph it before my thesis is finished.

Much like the clandestine peeks into the medicine cabinet, it’s the uninvited guest that gets the most compelling stories. We’re careful to blame it on curiosity, but in truth, we all seek the same thing — honest and intimate relationships with those around us. We want the stories behind the facade. It’s the pimple cream in the cabinet that shows us that they’re just like us — flawed, embarrassed, and human.

Dawn Huemann’s uninvited perspective into abandoned buildings and rural areas leaves us with a deeper connection to those around us. The photos tell stories through the things that we once cherished, and are now left abandoned. It’s a look into our future as much as the past.

The couches were once soft and new, windows clean and shiny. Now, what is left is peeling wallpaper, falling boards, displaced bricks and a book or a kettle here and there. Within the decaying walls and broken windows there lies a graveyard of forgotten importance.

Ultimately, Dawn Heumann’s photography thoroughly expresses her very own sentiment.

When I look at the world through a lens, I see only beauty.

Dawn continues to build up her thesis work and already has a few more locations scouted out, including an abandoned church in an actual ghost town. She’s excited and promises additional photos soon.

When asked who inspires her, Dawn cited Joyce Tenneson and Annie Leibovitz as professional influences, especially Leibovitz’s ability to let her subjects’ personalities come through. Both Tenneson and Leibovitz are renowned for their portraits and their ability to connect with their subjects. However, Dawn says that one of her largest creative influences has been her father.

He has been nothing but encouraging of my creativity since before I could speak. He has persistently managed to create a career and a life around the work that he loves the most.

"Ramon's Thinking Spot"

Dawn says that her biggest accomplishment has been learning the art of real film photography.

Learning how to work with film, and understanding its beauty transformed me as a photographer. Making my first fiber print in a dark room was perhaps the most prized moment I have had as a photographer. I felt in touch with the ancestors of this art form and proud of myself for taking the leap.

Dawn expects to graduate with her Master of Fine Arts in the spring of 2011. I have a feeling that her passion and spirit will propel Dawn and her career in whatever direction she decides to take it.

You can see more of Dawn Heumann’s portrait, event, and fine art photography at her portfolio Web site. Also, check out her professional Web site, where you’ll be able to hire Dawn Heumann’s professional services for your portraits, weddings, or other events.

Let me know which of Dawn’s photos is your favorite. Click the “I heart this” button to show Dawn some love, then go follow your passion, wherever it takes you.

For those interested in taking snapshots similar to Dawn’s abandoned series, she offers a few words of advice.

I have been in all kinds of situations; from falling through the second floor of an old home to setting off motion detectors in huge warehouses, to being faced with police. Often the buildings are not safe and are not meant to be walked in. I try to use my best judgment and be safe with how far I will take my shoot in an unsafe environment.

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